[ise]

'Le Monde' acquitted of 'racially' defaming Israel
Lara Marlowe in Paris
Thursday, July 13, 2006

Citing the right to freedom of expression and the European Convention on Human Rights, the French Cour de Cassation or Supreme Court yesterday struck down an earlier appeals court judgment which convicted Le Monde newspaper and three prominent intellectuals of "defamation on racial grounds" for a 2002 article criticising Israel. Sami Naïr, a professor of political science and former member of the European Parliament, said he and co-authors Edgar Morin and Danielle Sallenave would celebrate their definitive legal victory last night. All three received insulting letters over the four years since they published "Israel-Palestine: the Cancer" on the opinion page of Le Monde on June 4th, 2002, in response to the Israeli assault on the West Bank town of Jenin. Ms Sallenave was accused of "sleeping with Arabs" and Mr Morin, who is 85, was physically threatened. Letters were sent to the home of one of the judges, saying that "criticising Israel is the new anti-Semitism".

The lawsuit against Le Monde and the three intellectuals is part of a pattern. Mr Goldnadel is appealing the last of three failed lawsuits against Daniel Mermet, a popular radio journalist who has reported sympathetically on the fate of the Palestinians. Morin, Naïr and Sallenave quoted Victor Hugo: "The oppressed of yesterday are tomorrow's oppressors." Then prime minister Ariel Sharon compromised Israel's chances of survival "by believing he can ensure Israeli security through terror," they wrote. The Holocaust was used to justify colonisation, apartheid and confining Palestinians to ghettos. The authors condemned the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians as "state terrorism" and pointed out the disproportion in military might and casualties between Israelis and Palestinians.

Some things never change. These words are half a decade old. What 'offended' was...

La Monde in 2002 "It is difficult to imagine that a nation of fugitives, born of the longest persecuted people in the history of mankind . . . should be capable of transforming itself in two generations into a 'dominating, overconfident people' and, with the exception of an admirable minority, into a contemptuous people who derive satisfaction from humiliating," the authors wrote. ("Dominating, overconfident people" was Gen Charles de Gaulle's description of Israel.) Five paragraphs later, Morin, Naïr and Sallenave wrote: "The Jews of Israel, descendants of the victims of a form of apartheid known as the ghetto, have 'ghettoised the Palestinians . . ."

Irish Times "Judges must analyse the incriminated text in its context," the Supreme Court verdict said. By isolating two paragraphs from a much longer article expressing the authors' opinions on a highly polemical subject, the Versailles court had violated article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as French law. "The text in reality targeted the policy of the government of Israel against Palestinians, and not individuals or groups of individuals because of their national or ethnic origin, their race or religion . . ." the Supreme Court concluded.

"Israel-Palestine: the Cancer"

TG for old Europe.